How much should I pay in investment fees?
Management fees typically range from 0.20% to 2.00%. This will vary depending on your financial institution, your portfolio balance, and more.
Advisor (Management) Fees
The industry typically refers to this as an investment management fee and averages between 1-2% of assets (i.e. A $100,000 investment could cost you between $1,000 - $2,000 annually).
Answer: From a regulatory perspective, it's usually prohibited to ever charge more than 2%, so it's common to see fees range from as low as 0.25% all the way up to 2%, says certified financial planner Taylor Jessee at Impact Financial.
But, if you're already working with an advisor, the simplest way to determine whether a 1% fee is reasonable may be to look at what they've helped you accomplish. For example, if they've consistently helped you to earn a 12% return in your portfolio for five years running, then 1% may be a bargain.
Key Takeaways
A reasonable expense ratio for an actively managed portfolio is about 0.5% to 0.75%, while an expense ratio greater than 1.5% is typically considered high these days. For passive funds, the average expense ratio is about 0.12%.
What is a normal investment management fee? Management fees typically range from 0.20% to 2.00%. This will vary depending on your financial institution, your portfolio balance, and more.
Can I negotiate the percentage I pay my adviser? The short answer is yes. Ken Robinson, certified financial planner at Practical Financial Planning, says while a 1% fee may be common, advisers who charge based on AUM are increasingly scaling down from 1% at lower thresholds in the past.
Schwab and CSIM are subsidiaries of The Charles Schwab Corporation. There is no advisory fee or commissions charged for Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.
A financial advisor is worth paying for if they provide help you need, whether because you don't have the time or financial acumen or you simply don't want to deal with your finances. An advisor may be especially valuable if you have complicated finances that would benefit from professional help.
Generally, having between $50,000 and $500,000 of liquid assets to invest can be a good point to start looking at hiring a financial advisor. Some advisors have minimum asset thresholds. This could be a relatively low figure, like $25,000, but it could $500,000, $1 million or even more.
Is 1% too high for a financial advisor?
For decades the status quo in the financial advisory world has been to charge clients around 1% of assets under management. This fee arrangement has many advantages. Unfortunately, most of those advantages are enjoyed by the advisors, not the clients.
Management fees can also cover expenses involved with managing a portfolio, such as fund operations and administrative costs. The management fee varies but usually ranges anywhere from 0.20% to 2.00%, depending on factors such as management style and size of the investment.
There is no advisory fee for accounts with less than $25,000. Investments of $25,000 or more are charged 0.35% per year, but that level gets you unlimited one-on-one financial coaching sessions.
In other words, clients should expect to pay a maximum of $50,000 on a $10 million account. Online advisors have shown that a reasonable fee for money management only is about 0.25% to 0.30% of assets, so if you don't want advice on anything else, that's a reasonable fee, says O'Donnell.
Here's a breakdown of what's included in each: Management fee: This fee is what you pay to the fund manager or the team of investing professionals who make sure the fund achieves its investing objective and performs well. Typically, this fee falls between 0.5% and 2% of the assets being managed.
Mutual fund expense ratios are typically between 0.25% and 1% of your investment in the fund per year. Actively managed funds are usually more expensive than passively managed funds.
Searching for the magic number
A lot of advisors would argue that for those starting out, the general guiding principle is that you should think about giving away somewhere between 10-20% of equity.
Common investing costs include expense ratios, market costs, custodian fees, advisory fees, commissions, and loads.
An AdvisoryHQ study averaged three years of wealth management fees across the U.S. and found that, for a client with $1 million in assets, the average AUM fee was 1.02%. A 1% AUM fee means that a client will pay an annual fee of $10,000 to work with an advisor on an investment portfolio of $1 million.
Investors who work with an advisor are generally more confident about reaching their goals. Industry studies estimate that professional financial advice can add up to 5.1% to portfolio returns over the long term, depending on the time period and how returns are calculated.
Is it worth paying a financial advisor?
Not everyone needs a financial advisor, especially since it's an additional cost. But having the extra help and advice can be paramount in reaching financial goals, especially if you're feeling stuck or unsure of how to get there.
Vanguard could be a better choice for passive investors who want index funds; Charles Schwab offers more features that appeal to active investors. Ultimately, the better brokerage is dependent on how you invest.
Online listed stock and ETF trades at Schwab are commission-free. Online options trades are $0.65 per contract. Service charges apply for automated phone trades ($5) and broker-assisted trades ($25) for stocks, ETFs, and Options. Futures trades are $2.25 per contract8 for both online and broker-assisted trades.
"High-net-worth" is defined as having $5 million or more in assets.
Answer: A 1% fee is around industry average, but you could pay less. You need to ask yourself what type of value you're receiving for that fee. “Does the fee include ancillary services such as financial planning or tax preparation? Investment management, like any service, can be shopped around.
